055 HANDING OVER THE PHONE
"Nobody will bla you if you back out now. This is inherently unfair," Zairgid said.
"Back out?" Dan's smile was cold. "I just haven't decided how they'll die."
Then he moved.
In an instant, Dan was inside their formation, before the channeling could complete. He seized two hands—Freeland's and another's—closing the circuit.
Electricity arced violently along his arm, crackling with intensity.
"Goodbye," Dan said, his voice a quiet whisper against the rising storm.
A surge of raw energy shot through him, slamming into Freeland, then traveling down the line. The air was filled with screams as the challengers convulsed, their bodies wracked with brutal spasms. Muscles seized, and so students spat blood, others crumpled to the ground, twitching uncontrollably.
"What the hell is that ta?" soone shouted in horror.
"How… how did he electrocute them all at once?" another voice cried.
Dan's Electrocution was a high-cost, high-output skill. It drained his ta reserves like wildfire, but in a single, decisive strike, it could wipe out an entire group—and that's exactly what he needed.
The challengers' hands, once linked, now twitched and smoldered as the power crackled through them. In a heartbeat, they were all on the ground, smoking and burned.
"Too bad I couldn't see how this 'Formation channeling' turn out", Dan murmured with disappointnt.
Dan walked through the wreckage of their bodies, ignoring their groans, and casually flipped Prescott Aukuoma the middle finger as he passed.
Furious and humiliated, Prescott scrambled to his feet, cursing.
"You damn fools! I lost five million Aurs because of you!" he spat at Freeland and his friends, watching his wasted cash cards being flashed by Zairgid proudly.
The crowd around them buzzed with a mix of fear, awe, and excitent.
Zairgid jumped down the stage towards Dan, with aur cards in hand. Dan pocketed his share without a second glance and grinned at Zairgid.
"Next ti, tell them to bring more money."
-----
[In the General eting Room of Aukuoma Industries]
"Congratulations, Mr. Chairman. Your son has received a Hero's dal from Fortress Myrone. Remarkable for soone his age," Kelly Aukuoma said warmly. "Once he matures a little, he could be a great help to the family business."
Chairman Zolan smiled with pride. "He's still young, but very progressive. When other students stayed behind to pick up trash from the battlefield, he volunteered to fight alongside the army of Fortress Myrone."
"Don't overdo the praise," Vice Chairman Arom, Zolan's brother and rival, said with a smirk. "That's not how you train the young. Praise makes them arrogant."
Zolan chuckled. "Speaking of teaching the young, Arom — I heard one of your bastards tried to challenge Zairgid and wound up in the ICU. That's not how you raise them to fight battles they know they can't win…. And worse.. lose millions of Aurs in the process."
Arom's sons, Prescott and Xylo, weren't models for praise.
Xylo challenged Zairgid in school over his dal's authenticity and ended up hospitalized. Prescott, anwhile, backed the Veyran family in a failed attempt to challenge Dan and lost millions.
Arom's face darkened, but he had no retort. His sons had embarrassed him, and Zolan knew it. Without another word, Arom stord out of the shareholder's eting.
-----
Later that evening, Arom arrived at a dical facility. Xylo lay motionless in the ICU, covered in tubes and sensors.
"What happened to that idiot?" Arom demanded.
"Vice Chairman, he challenged Zairgid and was beaten," an assistant answered nervously.
"Zairgid? That fool dares do this to my son?... Does he even have the ability to do so?" Arom snapped.
A voice ca from the doorway. "It wasn't Zairgid, Father. It was his new lapdog — Dan Dark."
It was Prescott, his elder son.
Arom turned on him. "Prescott, I can understand Xylo being an idiot, he's a bastard.. but you're my heir. Why didn't you do sothing? Your failure made a laughingstock in the boardroom!"
"I did act," Prescott said defensively. "I backed six Rank F students from the Veyran family to fight Dan. They were all trained in secret formation channeling, but they were all defeated in a single move. This Dan is no ordinary student."
Arom frowned. "There is a fighter that powerful around Zairgid? That is unacceptable. We can't allow that."
"I'll take care of him," Prescott said, puffing his chest. "You have my word."
"Good," Arom replied curtly.
Then Prescott hesitated. "Uh… Father, could I have a bit more allowance this month?"
Arom narrowed his eyes. "What? Isn't your current allowance enough?"
Prescott swallowed. "It's about that Dan… I lost five million Aurs backing the Veyrans' fight against him."
For a mont, silence filled the room — then Arom's face twisted in rage.
"You're no less stupid than your useless bastard brother!"
-----
Dan pushed open his apartnt door expecting silence and dusty tables. Instead, a murmur of voices spilled out — soone had been inside his apartnt.
He froze, every instinct on him prickling. "There is an intruder in his apartnt."
He eased the door wider.
To his surprise, Dorin stood in the middle of his living room, her hands folded, her cheeks flushed in that too-bright way she had when she lied.
Behind her a lanky man barely glanced up from a datapad.
"Hi, Dan. You're back. We've been waiting for you," Dorin said, smiling like it was nothing at all.
Dan's mouth went dry. "Did she co to arrest him for the psychic attacks?" he thought.
He squared his shoulders instead. "Dorin—why did you break into my apartnt?"
She blinked, then the smile widened. "We have a case. We thought you wouldn't be back for a while, so we set up a temporary command post here."
"You used my apartnt as—" He cut himself off. "The school didn't tell about this new arrangent."
The man with the datapad glanced up at last. "We didn't inform the school," he said, his voice flat as tal.
"Who is that?" Dan asked, pointing.
"He's Special Investigator Lander — codena Detective," Dorin supplied.
"And you," Dan said to her, "what the hell are you?"
She straightened. "My codena is chanic."
Dan let out a humorless laugh. "What— which comic are you cosplaying from?"
"We aren't cosplaying." Dorin's smile hardened.
She reached into her jacket and flashed a badge. The letters caught the light: SIA — Superheroes Intelligence Agency.
Dan sat down as if struck. Before he could speak the man stepped forward a pace.
"There's another reason we took your apartnt," Lander said. He t Dan's eyes without blinking. "We need your phone."
Dan's first, absurd thought was of the mining app on his device — the thing he'd never told anyone about.
"My phone's private," he said, acting cool.
"It's not a request," Lander replied. "It's a demand from SIA operatives."
A laugh crawled out of Dan, small and savage.
"Kill them now and get rid of their bodies," he thought, his fingers itching at the dagger that wasn't there.
But he didn't move. He watched them instead — asuring and calculating. The room slled like burnt coffee and the faint ozone of Dorin's nervousness.
"Alright," he said handing over his phone.
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